Wanting More, in a Good Way: Beauty and the Blacksmith

After Maclean's romance put a bad taste in my mouth, I moved on to a different author, and discovered someone whose tastes for falling in love jive much better with my own. Beauty and the Blacksmith was everything I thought a straight romance novel(la) should be, and my only regret is that it ended too soon.

There wasn't a terribly deep amount of conflict, and I suppose there could have been more of that as the town blacksmith and high-born lady reveal their long-restrained attraction for each other, but I was more than happy to go along a smooth ride of them finally getting together, and each one of them being thrilled to death about it. I was too, and so the only thing that could have really sweetened this up (their dialogue was adorable and heart-melting) was if the anticipation had been drawn out a bit more for a more satisfying denouement. All the same, the steamy scenes were perfectly perfect. I liked very much seeing a male protagonist be a solidly "good" man, who thought he was the luckiest guy in the world, and treated her like a princess (except when he was covering her with soot, which she asked for and I just loved).

Needless to say, I've been going through Dare's Spindle Cove series at a decent clip now.

K. Rating: 4.5/5